


Where I Die On The Hill

by Zarius



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dreams, Dreamsharing, F/M, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Romance, thraham - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23160580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: “Living is all I do around you Doc, without you it all stops”
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor/Graham O'Brien
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Where I Die On The Hill

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vgault](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vgault/gifts).



As Graham readied himself for bed, he took a gander at the photographs on his bedroom desk.

Both of them were of him with women. His past and present, both lost in his future.

Both died heroes’ death, or rather one did. 

His saving Grace.

He wasn’t so sure about the other, not after Ko Sharmus had stormed out of the TARDIS that was to carry them far away from Gallifrey and return them to Earth. 

He had one intention on his mind, to relieve The Doctor of the burden of sacrifice.

None of them, not Graham, Ryan, or Yasmin, could tell for sure if he had succeeded. Or why The Doctor hadn’t returned to Earth by now. Perhaps he didn’t. 

Perhaps The Doctor had taken him with her in the final merciless gambit to free the universe from the iron grip of the Cyber-Masters.

As soon as the TARDIS landed, he had thought to the other promise she’d made.

How she would sacrifice herself for the universe within the beast of a thriving heart.

She had turned directly to Graham and finished that with sentence with ‘for you...my fam’

He was so sure she didn’t mean the family as a whole, it was meant only for him. He was her fam, her whole universe.

Maybe that was a selfish way of looking at it, but he had to think the extremes she was going to were for someone very special. Why not him?

He’d been trying to get the thing operational for weeks, but couldn’t grasp head nor tail of how to make it function. He had twiddled a few oversize knobs and made the central column rise up and down, often getting far too easily amused watching it do that. 

But nothing could be done to his exact specification or satisfaction.

He drove buses, not spaceships. No matter how many times he’d seen The Doctor operate the TARDIS console, how meticulously he studied the practice, the secrets of the fantastic machine he travelled in continued to mystify him.

But secrets have a habit of eventually spilling, and the mind gets sharper with every passing day.

So he would go to bed, he would rest his weary body, and he would get up the next day and try again.

Only the voices of reason could deter him, and he would have none of that.

“Wakey wakey” came a voice in his head, one that no time for reason.

Graham’s eyes began to stir; suddenly a sharp noise pierced his very eardrums

“Hey” the voice echoed

Graham, having let deep sleep overtake him, found himself in a fetal position within a construct of the TARDIS interior he was familiar with. He knew his eyes were deceiving him, that he was still asleep, but the dreams he was having pulled him inward. He ‘opened’ his eyes, knowing they were still closed in the real world; he bought into the dream as there was something so reassuring about it.

He found a thumb inserted into his mouth, he reeled back to find it was the thumb of a most familiar, feminine figure.

“Doc? Where are we? What is this?” he said as she smiled at him.

To his startlement, he found The Doctor bathed in a translucent white light that covered her coat and boots. The light shone so brightly it eclipsed everything else in the TARDIS.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself, you looked so precious all curled up like that, wanted to make you feel like a kid again” she said, waving happily to Graham.

“The important thing is not to worry, I know you so well Graham O’Brien, if a cat came into your room, you’d mistake it for a burglar and its purr would be a gunshot to you”

“Hey, I’m not that sensitive”

“I’m just messing with you. I like messes, people are messes, and I always mess them up, I’m trying not to with you though. Never you. I can promise that, then again, keeping my promises is where I usually die on the hill”

“You just roll off the hill Doc, leaving the rest of us standing there. I’m not afraid to follow you down” said Graham, putting his best foot forward in trying to impress her.

“Afraid it’s all downhill for me at the moment. Stuck in a Judoon holding facility...can’t quite get my bearings. I’ve heard rumours this place is Shada, a prison world built by my own people, now appropriated by the Shadow Proclamation”

“So how are you contacting me?” Graham asked

“TARDIS telepathic circuitry, I’m linked to the ship back where it is. You yourself have been developing some rapport with the TARDIS where you are, probably occurred when you were sorting out the flight instructions. Worse than an instruction Manuel written by Magnus Greel, go with your gut and trust the ship to guide you”

“So is there any way I can reach you?” Graham asked.

“Too dangerous Graham, it’s better to live your life”

“Living is all I do around you Doc, without you it all stops” Graham replied, almost choking up.

“I suppose I could do with more days on that hill then” The Doctor said, coming close to Graham and touching both of his cheeks

“What do you expect me to do Doc? Keel over and just dream of seeing you again when I could be standing right next to you? I miss you, we miss you. We love you, I love you”

“And I, Graham O’Brien, you’re quite right to do so. Do what you have to. Against all sense, against my word, against all odds. Find me, hold me, but above all else...love me”

The Doctor and Graham looked at one another with a look of great focus, affection, and determination; they pushed their lips closer, and let the light around them radiate as they pressed them together.

Then, just as swiftly, the light diminished, Graham was swallowed by pitch blackness. 

Now was the time to open his eyes.

He did so, and was greeted by the surging radiance of the sun as it rose. 

The night had given way to day already. 

In that instance, Graham realised he just had the best night’s sleep he’d ever had.

Graham thought a great deal about the psychic connections to the TARDIS, and to an old saying he read about in school  
Time travel was always possible in dreams.

TARDIS, a mind, focus, affection, determination, and an overriding love. 

All of them his.

He knew where to find them.

He knew he could find her.

All dreams come true.


End file.
